Background

THE SEVEN SUMMITS CHALLENGE

In the 1980s an American businessman Dick Bass had a dream of being the first person to climb the highest summit on each of the Seven Continents. It was first publicised in his book ‘Seven Summits’ and to date, fewer than 150 climbers around the world have accomplished that feat, and of that number only 15 are British.

I HAD A DREAM

Back in the late 1980s one man, the then SHQ Commissioner for Activities, Kevin Lloyd had a dream. He was reading Dick Bass’ book whilst trying to work out ways of how to set worthwhile challenges for older Scouts and young Leaders when a letter arrived from Northern Italy asking for ‘…advice, assistance and company to climb Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain’.

It was a sleepless night that followed. The outcome was the realisation that with the exception of the Soviet Union and Antarctica, there were Scouts near all the Mountains in question. Could penguins be invested?

Was it therefore possible to mount a joint mountaineering expedition for older Venture Scouts and young Leaders to each of the seven continents by simply doing what the Italians had done, by writing to the ‘host’ Scout nation and asking for assistance?

As all the expeditions would involve extremely high and potentially dangerous mountains it was important that the Leader team got on with each other and so increase the chances of success. Kevin went about selecting Leaders that he knew had the organisational, medical and mountaineering skills that were required.

For the selection of the younger team members, attitude, potential and the ability to work as a team were more important than practical skills - the latter could be suitably developed during the lead-in period that would follow. Kevin’s dream was about to become a reality.